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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word from the word bank in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

Word bank: club · kick · lash · race · content · net · wax · degree

  1. Buy me a box of chocolates and I'll be ________________.
  2. A university ________________ is the ticket to a successful career.
  3. He felt the sting of the whip's ________________.
  4. Later, his shop becomes a ________________ with young dancers.
  5. What's the best way to remove ear ________________?
  6. The spa offers ________________ extensions.
  7. He took the fish out of the ________________.
  8. One ________________ from a giraffe's hind leg is enough to kill a lion.
  9. The ball hit the back of the ________________.
  10. What was your ________________ profit last year?
  11. Check the label for the sugar ________________.
  12. The museum has ________________ figures of famous people.
  13. I belonged to the harmonica ________________ in my high school days.
  14. The moon will ________________ and wane.
  15. My rich neighbors belong to a private golf ________________.
  16. Atomic bombs are a danger to the human ________________.
  17. Don't ________________ out at me just because you're upset.
  18. To what ________________ are you interested in baseball?
  19. TikTok makes it very easy to create ________________.
  20. Only by prohibiting all nuclear weapons, we can together stop the arms ________________.
  21. Winning one ________________ isn't the same as dominating a sport.
  22. I get a ________________ out of her cheerful personality.
  23. They were given a penalty ________________ just minutes from the end.
  24. In my city, the temperature is one ________________ above zero.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. content — happy
  2. degree — from a university
  3. lash — a whip stroke
  4. club — for dancing
  5. wax — in the ear
  6. lash — an eyelash
  7. net — for catching
  8. kick — with a leg
  9. net — in sport
  10. net — after costs
  11. content — the amount
  12. wax — for sculpting
  13. club — a group
  14. wax — to grow
  15. club — for golf
  16. race — humankind
  17. lash — to lash out
  18. degree — an amount
  19. content — videos and posts
  20. race — the arms race
  21. race — a contest
  22. kick — a thrill
  23. kick — in football
  24. degree — temperature

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com